2003 MORGAN WOOTTEN INVITATIONALTIPS OFF HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL SEASON WITH TOP TEAMS
Participating schools include DeMatha, Bishop O’Connell, Verbum Dei and Friendly

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – DeMatha Catholic High School (Hyattsville, Md.) will once again highlight the eighth annual Morgan Wootten Invitational to tip-off the high school basketball season on Saturday, December 6, 2003, at the University of Maryland’s Comcast Center. This year’s event features four games that will benefit the Mid-Atlantic Coalition on Donation in an effort to raise awareness for organ donation.

The first game will be between Good Counsel High School (Wheaton, Md.) and Eleanor Roosevelt High School (Greenbelt, Md.) in a showdown of two of the region’s top forwards. Good Counsel features 6-7 small forward James Gist, who signed with Maryland for next year. Gist will battle 6-9 University of South Carolina-bound power forward Jared Gaither.

The second game will be a rematch of last year’s Maryland 4A state semifinal game of Glen Burnie High School (Glen Burnie, Md.) and Col. Zadok Magruder High School (Rockville, Md.). Glen Burnie looks for revenge against Magruder and will be led by the inside-outside combination of Mitch Guest and Brandon Albert. Magruder has enjoyed success over the past few years and strives to continue their state dominance.

The third game showcases Verbum Dei, one of the top teams from the Los Angeles, CA area, against the most storied high school basketball program in the country. DeMatha Catholic (Hyattsville, MD) looks to make an early season statement against this West Coast powerhouse.

The final game of the evening features two of the region’s most successful programs over the past few years in Bishop O’Connell (Arlington, Va.) and Friendly High School (Fort Washington, Md.). Friendly looks to repeat as Maryland State Champs led by standouts Sam Young and Chris Howard. O’Connell will once again be a national power with junior guard Marcus Ginyard, who has already committed to the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The Morgan Wootten Invitational was created through a partnership between Sports America, Inc. founder Robert J. Geoghan and Morgan Wootten, following Coach Wootten’s life-saving emergency liver transplant in 1996. The goal of the Morgan Wootten Invitational is to raise awareness for organ donation with net proceeds benefiting the Mid-Atlantic Coalition on Donation. Sports America, Inc., which has produced the event for the past seven years, also runs the McDonald’s All American High School Basketball Game and the Jordan Capital Classic.

Wootten, widely recognized as one of the greatest coaches in basketball history, won 1,274 basketball games in his career at DeMatha. It was Wootten’s 1965 DeMatha team that broke the 71-game winning streak of Lew Alcindor’s (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) Power Memorial team at Maryland’s Cole Field House. In 2000, Wootten was elected into the National Basketball Hall of Fame.

Tickets are only $10 for all four exciting games. For more information on tickets, please call Marc Steigerwalt at 301-424-9354 or visit www.mwinvite.com.